It’s been ‘stormy’ times for residents of the Sunshine State lately, but at least they have something to be cheerful about- Florida unclaimed money in the State Treasury. Billions of dollars worth of unclaimed financial assets are piling-up in the Unclaimed Property Division of the State Treasury and funny thing is, most owners aren’t even aware about their missing money.

In Indian River County alone, residents have substantial amounts of money coming to them. That is if they bother to even check. A certain Charles Roberts has $1,500 Florida unclaimed funds in his name. That’s way too much money to be left sitting-around specially in lean times like these. An Elizabeth Nevergold has $274 from lost assets in her name and surprisingly, even Washington’s Library of Congress has Florida unclaimed money worth $750! You think that’s big? Casselberry resident Sidney White received $25,000 from an old bond he lost track of. “My broker changed hands, and one broker was supposed to send it over to the other broker, which he didn’t,” White said.

The main reason people lose track of their financial assets is by changing addresses. Specially changing addresses in an emergency where there’s no time to leave behind a forwarding address. Mailed checks or financial notices from banks, insurance companies and tax refunds from the IRS are inevitably returned to their senders as undelivered mail and are turned-over to the State as unclaimed property after 3-5 years. Unclaimed money can also result from mix-ups in financial records after company mergers of banks and insurance companies.

According to Brendan Farrington of the Associated Press, “there are 7 million unclaimed accounts owed to 4 million Floridians.” Since 1961 the state has collected $2.4 billion worth of Florida unclaimed property. You’d be surprised at who’s on the Treasurer’s list of people owed unclaimed money in Florida- NBA star Alonzo Mourning, Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band, Terry “the Hulkster” Hogan (watch the video on the Today Show), and actors Burt Reynolds and Wesley Snipes are just some of the famous names that appear on the Florida unclaimed money list. Believe it or not, even State Governor Charlie Crist is owed $69.70 from an old insurance policy- money he lost track of after switching apartments several years ago. “That is surprising to me,” Crist says in a WINK news report “I would think the records would reflect my accurate address.”

The Florida Unclaimed Property Division early this month earned almost a million dollars worth of unclaimed property collected from safe deposit boxes from banks throughout the state. According to the St. Petersburg Times, $925,550 worth of assorted trinkets, jewelry, and other items were auctioned-off by the State in an auction held annually to make way for new incoming items. The unclaimed money raised from the auction goes into the state’s Public School Fund, but proceeds from sold items can still be claimed by the rightful owners. The state in fact plans to appropriate $48 million this year as slow lottery ticket sales have caused a shortage in funding for State Schools.

Everyone should do an unclaimed money search in Florida and other states. Even more so now in the face of the ongoing U.S. economic slump where any amount of extra cash can be a big help.